>>>>>>WHHOOOOOOOOOSHHHHHHH>>>>>>Fascist Dictator of the Heath Davis Appreciation SocietySupporting Petone's Finest since the very start - Iain O'Brien
Adam Wheater - Another batsman off the Essex production line
Also Supporting the All Time #1 Batsman of All Time Ever - Jacques Kallis and the much maligned Peter Siddle.

Hartmann will bat at No 5 behind openers Peter Ingram and Robinson, with captain Dion Ebrahim at three and Young at four.

The other newcomer is Hondo - a former Zimbabwean international.

A fast bowler, Hondo plays his club cricket for the Hawera United premier side and takes the one available spot in the rep team for an overseas player.

O'Neill said Hondo has fitted in well to the rep squad since arriving late last month.

"We'll use him in the pre-Christmas games on the wickets that suit him," he said.

O'Neill said Hondo hits the wicket hard with the ball, adding Hondo's experience had already proved its worth, with him passing on bowling tips to the young players in the squad.

O'Neill doesn't need telling of the importance for a team to start the cup series well. It's a competition that if you start badly and get off the pace, getting back in contention is almost impossible.

There are six teams chasing the one available spot to challenge for the cup which is currently held by Hamilton. O'Neill was yesterday talking of a first innings win against Manawatu at best.

"The wicket at Pukekura Park is as good as I've seen prepared in years for a Taranaki game," he said. "So you would expect both batting sides might be hard to get out on that. I'd be surprised if it went to an outright result."

Don't squander the gold of your days making a shrine of cricket videos, trying to improve the hopeless failure, giving your life away to the Blockys, the Devciches and the Weerasundaras! Surrender your devout little cricketing heart to the inured agribusinessman.

With the all rounders going round atm, and with the old/average ones in the Blackcaps (Ellis, Oram), who do you think has the most potential to take the next spot available? Basically they all need another season in domestic to get experience.

I'm fans of Boam, Neesham and probably Anderson (Looks like he's back to bowling full time, and looks handy). I think it's pretty dumb leaving Boam out of the Firebirds, and having Elliott there making 0 runs and bowling 5 overs a game. Basically keeping his spot because of experience and a big score every 5 games.

With these guys around, with the likes of Boult, Southee, Milne, Small, Henry, Bracewell, Williamson, Rutherford, Latham and the likes, that age group looks strong for the next decade.

With the all rounders going round atm, and with the old/average ones in the Blackcaps (Ellis, Oram), who do you think has the most potential to take the next spot available? Basically they all need another season in domestic to get experience.

I'm fans of Boam, Neesham and probably Anderson (Looks like he's back to bowling full time, and looks handy). I think it's pretty dumb leaving Boam out of the Firebirds, and having Elliott there making 0 runs and bowling 5 overs a game. Basically keeping his spot because of experience and a big score every 5 games.

With these guys around, with the likes of Boult, Southee, Milne, Small, Henry, Bracewell, Williamson, Rutherford, Latham and the likes, that age group looks strong for the next decade.

Well, the bowling looks strong, not so sure about the batting...of the all rounders, none of them have really stood out yet. Your certainly right that there's a space available for whoever gets noticed first.

The thing with thier bowling is they are all very similar, 125-130kph medium pacers. Neesham has had some good success with his bowling so far, and Anderson is only just starting up again. Jimmy is your smasher at 6, CJ is a aggressive 5 and Boam is probably a more run gatherer at 4. But as you say, they all need to be more consistant with their batting. I think Anderson scored 4 runs in his last to innings to back up his hundy, interested to see how Neesham goes.

I see de Boorder was standing up to the stumps for Duffy, Butler and Neesham yesterday.

Butler has looked quite sharp this season in the other video I have seen him in, including the televised T20 match. While Duffy looks like he is lacking rythym this season but I would guess is still sending them down in the 130s. I have only watched the wickets and boundaries via the front end, but that's pretty impressive keeping I am guessing.